How Nigel Met Rachel
by storyteller362
Summary: Nigel Uno is forced into a community soccer league. Until he meets Rachel who is just a miserable as him there. Together they might have just went on a mission together completely by accident. Oneshot. Please review!


**Authors Note: I am celebrating my ten year anniversary on fanfiction! This is story number four for the collection. This story itself is a huge callback and nostalgic for me. It's not up anymore but my first story on this site was published on this date ten years ago and about two operatives meeting (it was Kuki and Fanny). And I decided to revisit the idea on the exact date with Nigel and Rachel instead. **

**Let's see if you noticed which future villain was created in this story. ****Any and all grammar mistakes are my own and I apologize! I ran this through a checker and hopefully it caught everything. **

**Hope you enjoy this and please drop a review, I'd love to see what you think! **

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Nigel looked down at his bright yellow jersey with his name and number on it and sighed. Perfect, this was exactly how he wanted to spend his Friday afternoon, he thought sarcastically. Around their car, other cars were honking their horns at them. A few were even shouting at them to go the speed limit or learn how to drive. This was just embarrassing as he tried not to glance out the window. If anything, he wanted to go and play with his new friends like Abby and the KND.

"But daaaad, I don't want to play soccer," said Nigel groaning out from the backseat.

"The newspaper recommends that you should get involved with after school activities. You know in England we call it football, because you play it with your feet Nigel ol'bean," said Monty chortling along and blaring the radio with his tuba music. Sorry, sousaphone, he thought trying to block out the sound of car horns too.

Then finally after what felt like hours did the eight-year-old join a small group of kids. There had to be a way to get out of this, he thought, ready to run for it as soon as his dad left. Monty patted his back and pushed him forward before waving. He was going to read the parenting section of the newspaper near something called the snack shack. Maybe Nigel would make it look like he played by getting the jersey dirty, couldn't he?

Glancing around he tried to look for a familiar face but to his disappointment there was nobody he knew. Maybe they were kids from a grade above or below him. Then he remembered that Kendall Prep and Meyer Elementary were other local elementary schools. Maybe they were from there too.

What did catch his eye was a blond girl that looked just as miserable as he felt. Finally, he thought, everyone else just looked _so_ excited to be here. At least he wouldn't be the only one that felt like he was being punished.

"Hey, you," said a voice behind him.

"Me?" asked Nigel pointing to himself.

"Yea, you, get ready for your butt to be whooped," said the boy as Nigel stepped back slightly.

A taller boy with a large frame jeered at him before picking him up by his ankle and threw him in the direction of the girl. The bully's friends laughing and jeering from behind him. He let out a scream as he found himself flying and landing on his stomach sliding up to the bench. Oh, that was it, he was going to kick him back to wherever he came from. Or at least call arctic base to come and gather him up.

Nigel struggled to stand up to face him ready to put his new moves to good use. Now which one he thought.

That didn't seem to matter as the girl that he noticed earlier was next to him now. She leaned over his small frame and her blond hair tickling his nose some. Her hands pushing gently down on his wrist looking for a pulse. At least that's what he hoped she was doing.

"Hey that tickles," said Nigel batting her hair away from his face.

"I'm just glad to see you okay," said the girl helping him sit up. "He's done that to three kids already and one left for good."

"Well I'm going to put a stop to it," he said wishing that he had a weapon on him. Then glanced around noting that they were near a wooded area. Maybe a branch? That seemed to work, thought Nigel, already semi content with his plan.

He flushed noticing that the girl was still firmly holding his wrist.

"I wouldn't mess with him," she said finally. "I think he'll get what he deserves when we play against him. Until then, we should probably play along for now. I'm Rachel by the way, I haven't seen you around before. Are you new or do you go to one of the other schools?"

She brushed away some hair from her face with her free hand revealing brown eyes. Her bangs pushed off to the side some as Nigel looked down at his already grass stained jersey.

Nigel huffed wondering why he should just go with it and not fight back. Then again, she did have a point, he'll get what's coming to him. Maybe they could settle this on the field kids next door style on him. "I'm Nigel, I've been around for a while, I just go to Gallagher Elementary."

"I'm at Meyer Elementary. Hey, we'll go to the same high school one day at least."

He cracked a grin but before he could say anything the bully the field turned and called to them. "Why don't you and your girlfriend stop holding hands and run some laps."

Right, Rachel was still holding his wrist. He coughed and pulled away from her before running to catch up with the others. She was matching his pace as he kept an eye out on the bully. If there was anything he hated more than evil adults it was bullies. Nigel wanted to do something about it but remembered what Rachel said. They could beat him as his own game.

Looking over his shoulder he saw his dad watching them practice. His newspaper in front of him and a pretzel with cheese next to him. Not that far behind him was that snack shack. Great, no wonder Rachel didn't want to try to beat him up. Parents were watching the practice as he saw more of them.

A little farther behind his new friend looked just as dejected from before. Slowing down he matched her slower pace.

"Are you okay Rachel?" asked Nigel after a minute.

"Yea, I'm just not a fast runner," she said while he just narrowed his eyes.

"Something tells me that you're really not." He looked over at the stands to see a blond woman that looked similar to her playing with a small boy. Maybe that was her brother and mum? Rachel was looking in the same direction and shook her head. "You're a good guesser, I was just hoping my dad would be here."

"Oh, is he working?"

Rachel hesitated as they picked their pace running their laps. Hopefully it wasn't too much more running before they had to stop.

"Well, uh, no I don't think so… I don't think I should have to explain myself to you."

He could tell something was off and shrugged as best as he could while running. "Alright don't tell me, I just want you to be focused once we corner that kid and his team. I'm thinking once we get to goalie practice we get everyone to kick the ball at him at once rather than one by one."

"Got it."

She nodded and glanced around until there was a loud whistle. Everyone raced to the direction of the coach and a woman next to him. The coach explaining drills and how to run between the cones. They were going to partner up and kick the ball back and forth to each other. This was just boring, he couldn't help but think. Then smiled when the last drill was announced. They were going to each practice being goalie. He wasn't going to be aiming for the bully's net but his body.

"You losers, you suck!" called Adam pushing the kid he was practicing over backward before crying to his mom. "I am the greatest!"

Thankfully the first half of the drills was easy.

"You're a natural Uno," called the coach as he kicked the ball with ease.

From the corner of his eye he could see the bully, which he learned was named Adam, talking with the woman next to the coach. They locked eyes and Adam put his fist to his hand indicating that he was going to beat him up.

"No! The natural is MY CHILD," called the woman yelling at the coach.

"Yea I'm the best on this team," bragged Adam as Nigel kept himself from rolling his blue eyes. Adam kicked a soccer into the net as it flew directly in the middle, showing off.

The coach ignored it and then screamed at someone named Worthington to hustle. McKenzie was a natural and but needed to be more enthusiastic. Some kid named Egbert needed to concentrate more.

What was funny was that Adam wasn't very good either. Other than beating everyone up he kept kicking over the posts and hitting the ball into the woods. The woman kept fighting the coach to praise her son more instead.

Finally, everyone stopped to stare at them in the middle of passing the ball to each other. Rachel stopped the ball with her foot before she could pass it to him, as they watched them.

"Listen old lady, your sons not any good. You have to have small and lithe to be good at soccer, and he's not that. Quit fighting me about it…" Everyone stopped and stared at them before gesturing to keep going with the drills. "Goalie practice!"

Nigel nodded to Rachel who went and whispered the plan to some other kids. If they were going to do this withou technology, they needed all the help they could get. All while Adam was busy picking on some kid about how he needed to learn how to use his head or he'd use it as the ball. He turned to the others nearest to him and shared their plan. They just had to wait for…

"My son is first," said the mom again. Oh my gosh, was actually going to work to their advantage. Adam was first after all. "Those drills weren't good enough, but he can defend the net."

Nigel and Rachel shared a look with a small grin on their faces. Nodded to the others around them as Adam stood in the middle of the net ready to take on the first player. They looked down at the ball in front of them and nodded.

Around them everyone kicked the ball right him. Adam shrieking as the balls flew in the air pelting him little by little. The balls showered around him and hit him in the torso, arms, and legs.

"Ready?" asked Nigel to Rachel.

"Ready."

With that both of their soccer balls hit him square chest knocking him out. The mom and the coach stopped and stared horrified at what they just saw. Until finally…

"YAY!" screamed the rest of the team and high fived each other going around. That was awesome, muttered around the small group.

Even the parents were in on it as they started to join in on the cheering.

"You call this a team," accused the mother between the laughter and cheers to the coach. "You will never win the country wide second grade interleague semifinals with this kind of team. I bet I could get a team better than this one."

Nigel just grinned as he and Rachel watched feeling elated. He was pretty sure his dad wasn't going to put him in soccer anymore at this rate. He high fived his new blond friend and went to grab his 2 by 4 technology. Nigel had to call arctic base to take away that bully for a while.

Only notice that Rachel had the same piece of technology in her hands. They stopped and stared at each other for a minute and lowered their communication devices.

"Wait you're a kids next door operative?" asked Nigel to Rachel.

"You're a kids next door operative too?" she asked just as surprised at him. She straightened herself out before proudly adding. "Numbuh 362 espionage agent."

"Numbuh 1 of sector V." He said that just as proud and frowned slightly if she was a spy then… "Wait did I interrupt a mission, were you acting as a spy?"

"Er, not really," said Rachel hesitating and finally added. "My mom put me in soccer to help keep my mind off my dad. My parents got divorced at the beginning of summer. I wasn't thinking about at all today at least."

Ah that's why she was keeping an eye out for her dad. Probably hoping that he wouldn't show up and throw her off. Or watching from the sides despite the divorce. "Oh I'm sorry about your dad. If you want someone to talk to you can find me I'm told I'm a good listener," said Nigel and held out his hand. "It's a pleasure working with you numbuh 362."

"Ditto," she said taking his hand as they slowly shook on it. She might just take him up on that.

Behind them Monty started over to the two kids on the field and finally stopped in front of him. "Good show Nigel ol'bean. I don't think we need to keep you on this league though, too much yelling. I read in the paper about puppet show at the library." He glanced over at Rachel and beamed. "It looks like you made a new friend. Would you like to come get ice cream with us, um, I don't believe I got your name."

Numbuh 362 shook her head politely. "My name is Rachel. Thanks for inviting me but I have a phone call I have to make." She winked at Nigel as he did too, that was kids next door classified. "Maybe some other time."

"Of course, I look forward to seeing you again."

She went off to make the call to arctic base with a flush of her own on her face. She seemed way happier than she did this morning. Monty patted his shoulder and started toward the car. "Ice cream ol chap?"

"Ice cream sounds great dad."

He never thought about the bully's mother still yelling at the couch declaring that she would coach a team herself. She'd used her minivan and force a team if she had to. Instead, Nigel thought about pistachio ice cream, his new friend numbuh 362, and spending time with his dad for the rest of the afternoon.


End file.
